Sometimes you come across something that just utterly astounds you. Today is one of those days. If I was to stand here and tell you, straight-faced and looking you in the eye, that there are four active oil wells in that bastion of uber-douchiness, Beverly Hills, CA, you’d smack me right square across the mouth for such blasphemy. Nonetheless, that’ s exactly what I’m here to tell you.
Here’s a link to the wikipedia article for more extensive reading, but here’s the quick rundown: The Beverly Hills Oil Field was discovered in 1900, it’s by no means huge, but it is one of the very few oil fields in a densely populated area. These wells were first activated around 1900 and today produce about a million barrels of oil a year. All the wells utilize side-drilling technology so they can capture oil from areas not directly beneath the well. This means that property owners in the surrounding vicinities get royalties from oil sales.
If the idea that there are oil wells in Beverly Hills isn’t mind boggling enough, here’s the kicker: one of these oil wells is located on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. This nets the school roughly $300,000 per year from royalties. If you’re unfamiliar with Beverly Hills High School, it’s famous for its “swim-gym,” a gym where the basketball court is movable to reveal a pool. It has also seen its fair share of famous students, such as Slash, Betty White (haha), Jamie Lee Curtis, and Lenny Kravitz, among others. Oh, and Nicolas Cage too. It was also featured in the greatest film (heavy sarcasm) of our generation, Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone and our late, dead friend, Brittany Murphey.
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Anyway, here’s the Google Streetview of the BHHS Oil Well:
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Here’s the Streetview of the largest well:
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Here’s the Streetview of the smallest well:
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(It’s behind the trees, on the grounds of a country club.)
And finally, the Streetview of the remaining well.
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For good measure, here’s the location of a well abandoned in 1990 on an unused backlot of Twentieth Century Fox Studios:
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All these building are sound proof and have no windows, and if you drove past them, you’d be hard pressed to identify any of them as an oil well. If we can get away with drilling for oil in the middle of FREAKIN’ BEVERLY HILLS, someone please tell me why we can’t drill 30 miles off the Gulf Coast to help us become slightly more energy independent.
